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Free Speech

An Ohio village ordinance banning door-to-door canvassing without a permit violates the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to free religious expression, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday, the latest in a long history of First Amendment victories for the religious sect at the high court.

Thatís got to be the most annoying religion ever. Once a month a very persistent pose of them came to my door asking if a wanted to be a Jehovah's Witnesses I politely told them no thanks and not to waste there time stopping by here anymore. But they never got the hint. Every month ďHave you heard about bla bla blaĒ. Eventually I decided that there were only three ways to get them to stop bugging me.
1. Become a Jehovahís Witnesses
2. Buy the biggest meanest dog I could find
3. Borrow my friendís hunten rifle and fire it in the air while yelling. (i.e the international sigh for get off my land)
One was right out of the question. With two I figured that the dog would side with the Jehovahís and eat me. I decide on three. Long story short they never came back.

I had a friend in college that amused his high intelligence with reading everything he could get his hands on. One day he was reading the Necronomicron after having read the bible front to back and lo and behold...the doorbell rang. (see where I'm going with this?) He sticks his finger in the book to hold his place, tucks the book under his arm and opens the door.

Three Jehovah witnesses are standing on the porch.

They look at him..the book...back at him...then to each other. And promptly beat feet outta there, never to be seen again.

Well a woman friend of mine came up with a fool proof method, she winks at them says come into the bed room lets talk it over. They never returned LOL

I believe that one of the characteristics of the human race - possibly the one that is primarily responsible for its course of evolution - is that it has grown by creatively responding to failure.- Glen Seaborg

I have a really close friend who's a Jehovah's Witness and we have had numerous conversations about her religion (mainly because I don't agree with many of the common forms of organized religion and I'm interested in learning more about the different religions). According to an article I read, there are currently over 1,000,000 Jehovah's Witnesses within the US, with over 6 million throughout the world (Microsoft Encarta 2002). The "door-to-door evangelism", if you will, is not that predominant. Yes, it is true that they do wish to advocate the second coming of Christ to those who are not part of their religion, but many of them refrain from doing this. Every religion has evangelists, but many people target Jehovah's Witnesses because it is a religion which many don't understand, and they are easier to target because other evangelists (such as televangelists, street evangelists, etc.) are much more difficult to ignore. I don't mean to offend anyone, I just figure some people might be interested.

AJ

PS: Many of the things I stated here were some of the things I pulled from my conversations with my friend, so I apologize to any one if I made any mistakes.

Anyways, I don't buy that the right to bother others should be a protected religious right, but that's me.

Chris Shepherd
The Nelson-Shepherd cutoff: The point at which you realise someone is an idiot while trying to help them.
\"Well as far as the spelling, I speak fluently both your native languages. Do you even can try spell mine ?\" -- Failed Insult
Is your whole family retarded, or did they just catch it from you?

I guess I'm lucky. I live in an area where the houses are too far apart to justify walking door-to-door (unless you want a really good workout... lol). Even if they were to try, I have a gate (as do many of my neighbors) and no way am I going to open the gate for them (unless, of course, it's my friend since I know I could debate her religion with her :-) Growing up, I remember them coming to our house, but my parents were pretty good at getting rid of them. Since I bought my own place here, I've never had any door-to-door salesman (except for one guy, but that was only 'cuz I was taking out the trash and he saw me walking up my driveway and my gate was open).

Well, the Witness' seem to be a pretty easy bunch to "scare" - perhaps rightfully so (let's just say that I have a very close, personal friend who has a direct relative that's a practicing Witness). She's a bit "flighty" sometimes...

The Necronomicon of Alhazred, (literally: "Book of Dead Names") is not, as is popularly believed, a grimoire, or sorcerer's spell-book. It was conceived as a history, and hence "a book of things now dead and gone". An alternative derivation of the word Necronomicon gives as its meaning "the book of the customs of the dead", but again this is consistent with the book's original conception as a history, not as a work of necromancy.

Anyways, I can't speak for their practices, but it's been my experience that they tend to be one of the more hypocritical organized religions out there... then again, they'd probably disagree with me choosing the word "religion" to describe their "gatherings." (can you tell I'm a bit cynical?)

Perhaps I'm also swayed, knowing a few that have been dis-fellowshipped, as well...

Anyways, I don't buy that the right to bother others should be a protected religious right, but that's me.

Personally, I think they can say whatever they want to try to get me to "think" about something... as long as it's in a public place and does not infringe on my own rights to privacy (or have them GTFO). Yes, they, like most other religions, have some good points... but, all in all, I think many/most organized religions have a tendancy to take themselves a bit too seriously.

At least that's my observations and opinions...

(and yes, in the same breath, I'd defend cwk's right to shoot a loaded rifle on his property, as long as that action did not interfere with anyone else's rights -- and yes, I pretty much think that people's property is just that... they're property on which they can do whatever floats their boat - it's my choice whether or not I choose to like it, etc

\"Windows has detected that a gnat has farted in the general vicinity. You must reboot for changes to take affect. Reboot now?\"

Well, the Witness' seem to be a pretty easy bunch to "scare" - perhaps rightfully so (let's just say that I have a very close, personal friend who has a direct relative that's a practicing Witness). She's a bit "flighty" sometimes...

Not to mention that most of the Necronomicon is fictional, and it was created by a gothic horror author by the name of Lovecraft. He wrote some truly scary stuff, but the Necronomicon's only 'magical power' is what people seem to believe it can do.

Personally, I think they can say whatever they want to try to get me to "think" about something... as long as it's in a public place and does not infringe on my own rights to privacy (or have them GTFO). Yes, they, like most other religions, have some good points... but, all in all, I think many/most organized religions have a tendancy to take themselves a bit too seriously.

No argument there.

Chris Shepherd
The Nelson-Shepherd cutoff: The point at which you realise someone is an idiot while trying to help them.
\"Well as far as the spelling, I speak fluently both your native languages. Do you even can try spell mine ?\" -- Failed Insult
Is your whole family retarded, or did they just catch it from you?